While outrage rises, wonders thrive below
While rage bait from the highest levels keeps stirring old tensions over race and respect, the deep waters below are quietly offering beauty, order and coexistence.
Trinidad and Tobago’s first locally led deep-sea expedition has uncovered 25 cold-seep ecosystems and at least 20 suspected new species.
According to the Schmidt Ocean Institute, the expedition was led by Dr Diva Amon of SpeSeas and a mostly Trinbagonian team aboard R/V Falkor (too).
Using the remotely operated vehicle SuBastian, researchers mapped more than 11,335 square kilometres of uncharted seafloor. They detected 219 bubble streams that helped them locate the cold seeps.
These ecosystems form where chemicals such as methane escape from the seabed. Chemosynthetic bacteria convert that chemical energy into food, allowing mussels, clams and tubeworms to flourish without sunlight.
Among the most intriguing finds is a Graneledone octopus first observed during a 2014 expedition involving Dr Amon. Scientists lacked enough information to determine whether it was new to science, but evidence from the latest mission may finally provide an answer.
The team also collected more than 700 specimens and recorded at least 54 species never previously documented in the country’s waters.
Above the surface, some choose to deepen divisions. Below it, nature quietly demonstrates what coexistence can create.
